When I was working for an urban planning think tank one of the techniques we'd use in analysis was the superimposition of maps. So here I took a Google Earth map of the Midwest and superimposed the locations of various European cities. They are in the same orientation (i.e. north is up) and at the same scale.

I arbitrarily aligned Chicago and Amsterdam. The result makes you think. What's really striking is how many cultures exist in an area the size of middle America:

The entire UK could pretty much fit inside Minnesota, Iowa and eastern South Dakota. The Belelux countries handily straddle Illinois and Indiana, while Germany is pretty much within lower Michigan, Ohio and eastern Indiana.

Here, I moved toward Central Europe, arbitrarily aligning Milwaukee and Budapest, and got these results:

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How ironic that there actually is a place called "Hamburg" almost exactly where you put that dot! In fact, when I first looked at the map, I was like "what the heck is in hamburg that is important?" The town is actually closer to the dot in the letter 'i' in Detroit.

As kind of a World War 2 buff, it's interesting to think about how the Allies push from Northern France to Berlin was, distance-wise at least, like marching across just a couple of states...Normandy to Berlin wasn't much farther apart than Chicago is to Cleveland. I've just never thought about it quite like that before, I've always had this perception that the distances were so much greater.

All of the streets in the lower 48 United States: an image of 26 million individual road segments. No other features (such as outlines or geographic features) have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population. This began as an example I created for a student in the fall of 2006, and I just recently got a chance to document it properly.

Alaska and Hawaii were initially left out for simplicity's sake, but I felt guilty because of the sad emails received from zipdecode visitors. Unfortunately, the two states don't "work" because there aren't enough roads to outline their shape, so I left them out permanently. More technical details can be found here and additional updates here.

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All of the streets in the lower 48 United States: an image of 26 million individual road segments. No other features (such as outlines or geographic features) have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population.

That's an amazing find! I assume since there are some counties that have "suddenly" fewer roads (western Kansas & Nebraska for instance) that there is some missing data. But really, it's fascinating to see how developed this country really is.

__________________On the internet, you're never too old to learn something stupid.

Thinking of the Midwest, how do we compare in scale to the Mideast? Aligning Bagdad with Chicago produces the first image below. Iran's capital, Tehran, is close to where Toronto is, with Damascus not that far from Omaha. (I neglected to include the label, but the area just south of Jordan and Iraq is of course Saudi Arabia.)

Think about the Gulf War of 1990. I don't mean to belittle things, but it's almost as if the Mayor of Chicago decided to invade and occupy a dozen counties in eastern Kentucky:

And somewhat surprisingly:

The sizes of the Gaza strip, the West Bank and the Golan Heights really show up how much importance is being placed on such tiny strips of land, and yet those lands are imbued with incredibly symbolic importance.

Really. You have to ask yourself. Is this worth such bloodshed? The risk of a nuclear war?

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No one seems to regret that Thomas Jefferson’s plan for the division of the Northwest Territory into ten new states was shelved. The proposed names were just too silly, writes 19th-century Jefferson-biographer John T. Morse, Jr.:

“The names suggested for these ten States are a peculiar mixture of Latin and Indian, and while a semblance of some of the names still remains in two cases, in all others it is so absolutely forgotten that the very fact has ceased to be known by many close students of American history. Yet, besides this humane and noble piece of statesmanship (the proposed prohibition of slavery in the territory) we have a glimpse of that absurd element in Jefferson’s mind which his admirers sought to excuse by calling him a ‘philosopher’. The matter is small, to be sure, but suggestive. He proposed as names for the several subdivisions of this territory: Sylvania, Michigania, Cheronesus, Assenisippis, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga, Washington, Polypotamia, and Pelipsia.”

In 1787, the fledgling new republic for the first time expanded beyond the borders of the original 13 states. The area between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers was annexed via the Northwest Ordinance, which also resolved long-simmering rivalries between the original states, most of which had claims to territories out west, by creating new states rather than expanding existing ones.

It did take a while before the states as we now know them took shape. Statehood in the Northwest Territory was gained consecutively by Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837), Wisconsin (1848) and finally Minnesota (1858).

All of which might not have come to pass if the committee, chaired by Thomas Jefferson in 1784, had gotten its way. This committee proposed to divide the Northwest Territory into 10 states of roughly equal size, and even had names ready for them. Names with an antique ring to them, possibly to lend a bit of credibility to the then still precarious business of westward expansion.

• Sylvania would have covered much of present-day Minnesota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and some of northern Wisconsin.
• Michigania would have incorporated most of Wisconsin, but nothing of Michigan.
• Most of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula would have been the state of Chersonesus, which is simply the Greek word for ‘peninsula’.
• The northern part of modern-day Illinois would have been the state of Assenispia, after the Assenisipi River, also known as the Rock River.
• In between Assenispia and Pennsylvania would be the state of Metropotamia, a name referring to the many rivers originating there.
• The states of Illinoia, Saratoga and Washington would have incorporated large parts of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio respectively.
• Polypotamia (‘Land of Many Rivers’) and Pelisipia would have covered the western and eastern parts of Kentucky, mainly (and therefore are partially outside the Northwest Territory, as it is bounded to the south by the Ohio River, Kentucky’s northern border).
There is some disagreement as to the spelling of some of the states (Chersonesus is sometimes spelled Cherronesus or Cheronesus, Assenispia is sometimes rendered as Assenisippis or Assenisippia) and even on the number of proposed states, with some saying Jefferson had 17 new states in mind (although only 10 are named in his proposal).
Adding to the confusion is the unclear status of the territory south of the Northwest Territory (nowadays the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi), contested between the Spanish, the US and several states with individual claims.
Jordan Penny, who was kind enough to make and provide this map of the ‘Jeffersonian’ Midwest, populates the area south of Kentucky with the states of Equitasia (western Tennessee) and Jefferson (eastern Tennessee), and has three states where there now are two: a more narrow Alabama, a state of Adams in the southern part of Mississippi, which in this version covers only its northern part.

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No one seems to regret that Thomas Jefferson’s plan for the division of the Northwest Territory into ten new states was shelved. The proposed names were just too silly, writes 19th-century Jefferson-biographer John T. Morse, Jr.:

“The names suggested for these ten States are a peculiar mixture of Latin and Indian, and while a semblance of some of the names still remains in two cases, in all others it is so absolutely forgotten that the very fact has ceased to be known by many close students of American history. Yet, besides this humane and noble piece of statesmanship (the proposed prohibition of slavery in the territory) we have a glimpse of that absurd element in Jefferson’s mind which his admirers sought to excuse by calling him a ‘philosopher’. The matter is small, to be sure, but suggestive. He proposed as names for the several subdivisions of this territory: Sylvania, Michigania, Cheronesus, Assenisippis, Metropotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga, Washington, Polypotamia, and Pelipsia.”

In 1787, the fledgling new republic for the first time expanded beyond the borders of the original 13 states. The area between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers was annexed via the Northwest Ordinance, which also resolved long-simmering rivalries between the original states, most of which had claims to territories out west, by creating new states rather than expanding existing ones.

It did take a while before the states as we now know them took shape. Statehood in the Northwest Territory was gained consecutively by Ohio (1803), Indiana (1816), Illinois (1818), Michigan (1837), Wisconsin (1848) and finally Minnesota (1858).

All of which might not have come to pass if the committee, chaired by Thomas Jefferson in 1784, had gotten its way. This committee proposed to divide the Northwest Territory into 10 states of roughly equal size, and even had names ready for them. Names with an antique ring to them, possibly to lend a bit of credibility to the then still precarious business of westward expansion.

• Sylvania would have covered much of present-day Minnesota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and some of northern Wisconsin.
• Michigania would have incorporated most of Wisconsin, but nothing of Michigan.
• Most of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula would have been the state of Chersonesus, which is simply the Greek word for ‘peninsula’.
• The northern part of modern-day Illinois would have been the state of Assenispia, after the Assenisipi River, also known as the Rock River.
• In between Assenispia and Pennsylvania would be the state of Metropotamia, a name referring to the many rivers originating there.
• The states of Illinoia, Saratoga and Washington would have incorporated large parts of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio respectively.
• Polypotamia (‘Land of Many Rivers’) and Pelisipia would have covered the western and eastern parts of Kentucky, mainly (and therefore are partially outside the Northwest Territory, as it is bounded to the south by the Ohio River, Kentucky’s northern border).
There is some disagreement as to the spelling of some of the states (Chersonesus is sometimes spelled Cherronesus or Cheronesus, Assenispia is sometimes rendered as Assenisippis or Assenisippia) and even on the number of proposed states, with some saying Jefferson had 17 new states in mind (although only 10 are named in his proposal).
Adding to the confusion is the unclear status of the territory south of the Northwest Territory (nowadays the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi), contested between the Spanish, the US and several states with individual claims.
Jordan Penny, who was kind enough to make and provide this map of the ‘Jeffersonian’ Midwest, populates the area south of Kentucky with the states of Equitasia (western Tennessee) and Jefferson (eastern Tennessee), and has three states where there now are two: a more narrow Alabama, a state of Adams in the southern part of Mississippi, which in this version covers only its northern part.

If someone has time (maybe me) I would love to see a fictional map with the cities imposed over this map. Further, it would be great to pretend which city would be the respective Capitol and what the population would be for those areas.

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it could have been worse. via an act of congress in the early 19th century, illinois had it's northern boundary pushed ~40 miles northward to gain lake michigan access. had that not happened, or had congress refused, chicago would have been in the territory that eventually became cheeselandia.

If someone has time (maybe me) I would love to see a fictional map with the cities imposed over this map. Further, it would be great to pretend which city would be the respective Capitol and what the population would be for those areas.

Here goes:

I like the capital of Saratoga.

Of course with Unigov, the entire state would be it's own capital by now.

And Illinoia? Is that a condition when someone is paranoid of being sick?

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Alien encounters, abductions and sightings are very much out of the picture since they were milked for televisual success by the popular series The X-Files in the 1990s. This diminution of media coverage for UFOs and suchlike could of course be part of the very elaborate cover-up by the US government, which obviously has to be in cahoots with the more ominous races of aliens currently running the show in Area 51.

That doesn’t prevent the brave J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies from Chicago from publishing a map of UFO sightings in the US. It indicates the number of UFO reports per 100.000 people by county in the continental US. Some observations:

• There is a marked difference in levels of UFO visitation between the eastern and western halves of the continental US. Apparently, extraterrestrials like it out west.
• Marked exceptions to this rule is a hotspot in northern Minnesota, several others spread out mainly in Missouri and Illinois and a small area in the Florida panhandle.
• Aliens like the west, but generally don’t care for Dixie: the south is remarkably UFO-free.
• Preferred landing spots of UFOs are concentrated in the states of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, the three coastal states and Nevada – with a spike around, of course, Area 51.

Really. You have to ask yourself. Is this worth such bloodshed? The risk of a nuclear war?

Only Israel has nuclear weapons in the region, so they would be the instigators if such a war were to start. And yes, when you have people being corralled like animals into small slices of land and being pushed off their native lands, emotions can get pretty intense.